w it only as a mild
variation of the ordinary symptoms. It has not in any case under my
observation proved fatal, but has readily yielded to gentle measures,
aided by attention to simple diet.

The liver is generally involved. After the termination of a fatal case,
this gland is found either soft or more brittle than it ought to be, else
it is discovered much enlarged. I never saw it of less than its natural
size. Generally it is discolored, mostly of a pale tint; which sometimes
exists all over the organ, though the pendulous edges of the lobes are
very generally seen of the bright red, suggestive of inflammation. The
gall-bladder is always distended with a thin dark-green fluid or impure
bile; and a large quantity of the same secretion, but of greater
consistency, is distributed over the lining membrane of the anterior
intestines. The liver obviously is the cause of the yellow distemper,
which is no more than jaundice added to the original and pre-existing
disease. Yellow distemper is by writers treated of as a distinct disorder,
but I have not yet met with it in that form. When it has come under my
notice, it has been no more than one of the many complications which the
symptoms are liable to assume. The dog has been ill before his skin became
discolored; but the eyes not exhibiting that ordinary discharge which
denotes the true character of the affection under which he labored, the
distemper was not detected.

Everything concerning distemper is by the generality of the public
misunderstood. Most people imagine a dog can have the distemper but once
in its life; whereas I had a patient that underwent three distinct attacks
in one autumn, that of 1849. The majority of persons who profess an
intimate knowledge of the dog will tell you distemper is a disorder
peculiar to the young; whereas I know of no age that is exempt from its
attack. I have known dogs, high-bred favorites, to be left with men
selected because of their supposed familiarity with dog diseases; and
these very men have brought to me the animals in the fits which are the
wind-up of distemper, yet notwithstanding have been ignorant that their
charges had any disease whatever. All the stages and symptoms of ordinary
distemper may appear and depart unnoticed; but it is widely different with
yellow distemper, for when the yellowness appears, it is so marked that no
description of a peculiar symptom need be inserted, since it cannot be
overlooked or mistaken.